Happy New Year

I created Mood Sentry for myself, to help me better manage my depression.  There's really no way for me to know if Mood Sentry will help others manage their moods.  I simply assume that because it helps me it may help others.  However, I really feel that no app will be sufficient in itself to cure depression.  It's the effort the individual puts into managing their condition that will make the difference.  If Mood Sentry doesn't help you then try something different.  It's not the app, but the belief followed by the effort that will make a difference in your life.  Try therapy, try other apps,  try books, but keep trying.  We at Mood Apps believe that mood disorders can be managed and potentially overcome through effort.  There's a lot of support available to help you (us) achieve a better life, but you (we) gotta work for it.  Happy New Year, and good luck!

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

Working on the Next Update

This one will mostly be structural.  I thought about adding a new tool with a working title of Who I Am, which I thought might be a good thing to include.  The idea was that one could identify different aspects of who they are and also evidence supporting that claim.  For me, it might help me identify areas for improvement (such as areas for which I have no evidence), and may even suggest future courses of action.  However, I think I need to get this next update out because I've done a lot from a code structure standpoint and I'd like to wrap this change up and move on.

I'm also considering a free version that would have advertising in it.  I'm waffling on that because I think trying to sell to people who are trying to manage their depression/anxiety could be kind of sleazy.  I need to see what type of ads would show up on the screen before I can make such a judgement call.  We'll see.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

Back from my Trip

Returned from my trip tonight.  Well, I returned, my luggage is still in Seattle.  I think I handle stuff like this better than I used to.  It's been a while since my luggage was lost, so I really don't remember exactly how I reacted the last time. This time I can definitely say that I was relaxed and just a bit peeved that they didn't tell me sooner that my bags were in Seattle.  I waited until all the bags were off the airplane before speaking with the baggage folks, who had a message from the Seattle office stating that my luggage missed the plane.  "Should" they have told me this sooner, or "it would have been better" had they told me sooner. I like the second version better.  The app has helped me to better handle situations like this by recording the thoughts at the time and identifying mitigation techniques.  Reviewing my entries and experiences helps make the mitigation techniques more automatic.  Does it do the same for you?

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

Holiday Use

Today I made good use of Mood Sentry, reviewing My Experiences as well as a few entries in the Journaling and Thriving tool sets.  The main benefit has to do with something I don't think I've ever posted about before which is the canker sores I can get after periods of stress.  These things can be quite uncomfortable and thus can start my day off in a negative mood.  It's kind of like emotional reasoning in that the discomfort drives me to look at other things in my life through a lens of negativity. Fortunately, I'm getting better at recognizing this.  What types of distortinons pop up?  Overgeneralizations, such as these things will never go away, Magnifications regarding the importance of these things, and a should statement or two such as I should really handle my stress better.  I can counter these thoughts fairly easily.  The key for me is to take the time to examine my thoughts and see what's on my mind.  Mood Sentry helps in this respect with its reminders.  Of course, it's ultimately up to me to actually use the app.  I'm glad I did today.

I'll be Busy the Next Few Days

I'll be busy the next few days, so my posts may be infrequent.  If you're looking for help using Mood Sentry, try the hints, check out past entries on this blog, or drop me an e-mail at support@moodappsllc.com.  I'll try to post how I'm using the app over the holidays, which will be pretty much how I use the app on regular days.  I check it in the morning and periodically throughout the day.  It helps me get through all the fuss and commotion during this time of year.

Happy Holidays to you all.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

Last Work Day of the Year Stress

At work today I had plans to get several things done, most of which I accomplished.  However, I found myself looking at the items I did not get to and thinking I didn't do enough.  Two things I've been telling myself that help: that the things I did complete were the important ones to complete, and I didn't have a realistic plan to begin with.  Looking back on my day, there was very little free time.  I was pretty focused on what I needed to accomplish because this was the last day of the year for us.  We'll be shut down until the 2nd.  So if I got the important stuff done, and didn't have time for anything else, wasn't what I did about the best I could have done?  It's now seeming to me that I did about the best I could do.  Regarding the items I did not get to, they actually can wait until after the holiday break.  I'm still a little stressed, but I'm feeling a bit better too.  I'll keep working on these thoughts.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

Started an Event Record

I started and event record for the events of last week.  I had multiple things due and was very stressed all week.  I decided to start an Event Record entry.  I thought it would be fairly straight forward, but it's not.  It might not fit in this format, so I may have to switch tools.  Perhaps it would develop better as an Observation.  Those entries are usually the easiest for me.  I've done this before, meaning starting off with one tool to capture a thought pattern only to switch to another tool that better captured what really happened.  It's something to keep in mind if you find yourself struggling to capture your thoughts in Mood Sentry.  If one tool isn't quite right, try another.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

Working no the Next Update

More code clean up and some interface changes.  The iPhone version will be just a touch cleaner, as will the android version.  I've restructured how I build the programs, which is why this update is taking a bit longer.  I want to make sure I didn't mess anything up in the process.  So far, so good.  I'm still thinking about adding a tool in the Thriving Tools section.  The working title is Who I Am. The idea is to identify who you are, or who you think you are with respect to things like value or spirituality.  It would be a two window view like My Experiences.  The upper window you'd capture who you think you are, and in the lower window you'd record evidence that supports that belief.  I think this might be a good exercise for myself, and thus other people.  I'll do a little research and see if I can find anything like the dimensions of self, or something like that.  If I develop this a bit more I'll post what I have and solicit feedback.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

Quite a Week

It's Friday, and this work week is finally over.  I accomplished all I really needed to this week, and actually finished the last major item after 4 pm this afternoon.  These tasks were tinder to my thoughts, stoking all sorts of distortions this week.  So what to do now?  Reflect back on the week, the thoughts that came up, how I handled those thoughts and how things actually turned out.  I had a lot of forecasts of failure, that I would need to spend all night working on these tasks, that other people supporting this effort would tell me that they can't get their job done.  None of that happened.  I did spend some extra time working, particularly yesterday and today, but I was able to get some exercise in, run errands, and spend time with my wife.  I had to give a few things up and didn't work on the app as much as I would have liked, but it was only for a week.  I'm fairly open this weekend and expect to get some more personal stuff done.  I used the app every day to help counter the thoughts that kept popping up.  These initial thoughts are usually catastrophic, but I'm getting pretty good at catching them and countering them.  Things turned out good.  I need to keep this in mind.  Weeks like this are a fact of life and the fact that I navigated it successfully is something good to keep in mind.  I think there may be an observation, or perhaps an event to capture for future reference.  I think I'll try this as an event.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

Tailoring My Experiences

Have you tried tailoring the My Experiences tool?  When I tailor one of those items I remove the word "Example:" at the beginning so I know that I tailored the entry.  The reason I do that is because my edits are often minor tweaks to the examples, which were my actual entries at one time.  Actually, after the last database update I have very few customized entries in My Experiences.  FYI, the way the system is set up is with two database fields for each manifestation and each mitigation.  One is the example and the other is for your custom input.  If the custom field if empty, then the system shows the example.  So the system will usually show you something unless you have a custom field with nothing but spaces.  Tailoring My Experiences is one of the first things I did with this app.  The reason was that the examples I found in books and on-line were not quite "me" so I figured I would create my own.  How about you?  I doubt that my entries reflect you, so did you take a stab at your own definitions?

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

Classic Jumping to Conclusions for Me Today

I have multiple things that I'm trying to get done this week, and I was forecasting that I wouldn't get them all done.  I need input from others on every one of these things, which can really get my thoughts going in a distorted manner.  The counter thoughts I have help, such as when I think other people should have gotten back to me by now.  Also, when I think that I won't finish everything, I can challenge the need to finish everything this week (the goal of this week is partly a personal goal driven by the holidays).  Finally, there is a chance that I will get all three major items completed this week, so I focus things I can complete that will support the goals.  All this helps but doesn't eliminate the thoughts.  The thoughts linger and surface throughout the day.  I'll keep working on this and see how much stuff I can get done this week.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

A Better Day than Yesterday, but Still Tough

I think a better night's sleep helped.  I did wake up in the middle of the night, but got out of bed, had a drink of water, and returned to bed.  I was able to get back to sleep after a little restlessness.  I still have a lot going on at work, and I did fairly well actively addressing things in an attempt to keep things moving forward.  If all goes well I'll get a lot of stuff done this week.  I've been setting goals every day, but I've been forgetting to check my status at mid-day because I'm so stressed.  I'll keep working this and challenging any thoughts I identify.  I'm a little more optimistic that I'll get the important stuff done this week.  We'll see.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

A Monster Day Today

I went into the office and was stressed from the start.  I have a lot of high priority things this last week of the year for me.  The prioritization matrix identified several as High priority.  Yikes.  This was a first  for that experience.  It's always helped me set enough things aside that I could focus on just a couple if items.  Then, I had one item that took a long time to resolve, which resulted in thoughts of never getting anything done.  On top of this all I had to deal with multiple people throughout the day, which I'm just not designed to do.  So what did I do?  I just kept working, addressing my thoughts as best I could, and trying to identify things I could complete and get off my plate.  I was stressed all day and really tired, but I got some good stuff done today.  I started this off by stating I was stressed from the start.  That was mostly due to not getting enough sleep last night due to thoughts of not getting my work done this week.  I really need to keep working this and addressing these thoughts.  This is going to be a tough week, but I think it will end pretty good.  We'll see.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

How are the Hints?

Every now and then I check to see how the Hints feature is working for you.  I added the hints because I thought having guidance on the phone in regards to how to use Mood Sentry would be useful, or at least more useful than a FAQ page on the web.  A couple of updates ago I started lightly customizing the hints for some of the tools, or at least the ones that allow the user to enter multiple entries.  Prior to that I had the same hints list for all those tools.  I'd love some feedback on the hints, or even the functions of the app itself.  Let me know what you think.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

Had a Good Day

Today was good because I got a lot of things done, though I had to overcome moderate inertia throughout the day.  I found myself procrastinating via TV and solitaire on the iPad.  I was reluctant to start the various tasks because I was forecasting quagmires and failure.  However, I was able to gently nudge myself to get up and get things done.  Like I said, I got a lot of things done today which is my main criteria for having a good day.  I did not set any goals for today in my Daily Goals tool.  What I did today was just keep a running list in my head.  I think in general it works out better if I document some goals in Mood Sentry and will do that for tomorrow.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

Reviewing My Entries

Every now and then I take the time to review the entries I made.  I review many of them not with a particular thought in mind, but just a general review to see all the thoughts I've captured and to look for common items, or maybe items that essentially document the same thought but in different ways.  When  I do this, I sometimes delete some entries, I sometimes combine some entries, and I often reword some entries to better capture the thought and its impact.  When I do this, one of the thoughts that typically goes through my head is that "I should do this more often."  Which, as you probably noticed, contains a "should" statement.  That's OK.  I deal with that thought with a simple replacement: "It might be helpful if I did this more often."  I'm not really sure it would be much if any more helpful if I reviewed my entries more frequently, but I am sure it always helps when I do.  How about you?  Do you have enough entries to take the time to review them and look for patterns and common themes?

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

Had an OK Day Today

I had an OK day today.  I was able to keep my stress in check, though I still felt a moderate amount of tension throughout the day.  I accomplished things on my Daily Goals list and even made some progress on the android version of the next update to Mood Sentry.  By that I mean I loaded it on a test device, found a bug, and corrected it.  I'll work with this update over the weekend and see what I think.  Changing the pop-up view (drop down, hints, and preferences) to have a white background with black font is looking a bit odd to me.  Maybe it will grow on me.  You'll know what I decided in the next update.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

Working on the Next Update

The next update is mostly a clean up update.  I am thinking of changing how the pop up views look on Android.  They currently have a black background with nearly white letters.  I think I'll reverse that on the next update and make the Android version a little more like the iPhone version.  I like the consistency, and changing the iPhone background (of the pop up views) is kind of a pain on iOS 7.  I'm not sure I'll follow through on the Android change.  I'll have to check it out on my phone for a week or so to see how it looks.  Other than that, there's been a lot of restructuring of the code and clean up in terms of simplifying the structure.  I'll spend a little more time checking this update out because I've touched so many of the subroutines.  Stay tuned.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

Had to Get Away from the Desk This Morning

I arrived at the office today and just started attacking my work without making the time to review Mood Sentry.  After a couple of hours I was feeling a bit anxious and decided to get away from my desk and walk out to my car.  There, I pulled out my phone and started to review My Experiences.  It helped.  I was able to recognize some distortions that were driving my mood.  These were my usual forecasts of conflict and tasks that will never get done.  I was able to address these and get back to work.  Note that addressing these involved action on my part, such as contacting people about the stuff that was on my mind and finding out the real answer, not what I imagined the real answer to be.  Making the time review My Experiences when something is bothering me is typically a productive idea.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

Using the Daily Goals

When I first created the Daily Goals tool I planned on only having one item per line.  I thought this made sense because as I completed one goal or objective I could simply replace what ever was on that line with another goal or objective.  However, because the lines are long enough for multiple items I usually have more than one item per line, at least for the things I plan to accomplish.  I can still replace items if needed but I tend not to.  One benefit of doing this has been that at end of the day I can typically see multiple things I've accomplished.  If I only had one item per line then I would only see the last  three things I accomplished or at least intended to accomplish.  I get a better sense of perspective when I can see all or most of the things I accomplished in one glance.  Actually, I typically only track important things and if I really think about it I often realize that there were several other things I accomplished on that day.  For me, this can help defeat feelings of not having gotten anything done on a given day.  I thought about adding more lines to the things I plan to accomplish section but three lines seems to be adequate for me.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

One of My Entries...

I talk a lot about reviewing my entries.  Sometimes I post one.  This is one of those times.  This is an observation I did a while back, and still review/revise periodically…

Observation

Sometimes I have a lot of anxiety when  looking toward the stuff I need to do. The feelings are due to thoughts such as not being able to do the work, spending a lot of time working on something only to find out it's crap, not knowing on which to start.

These thoughts can drive procrastination.  I'm usually better off just picking something and starting it.  Setting a stopping point can help, which can be a time limit as well as a convenient stopping point.

This maybe driven by my tendency for all or nothing thinking, which may drive should statements telling me that I should be able to finish everything "today," which may drive labeling if I can't.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

The Color Scheme

Since there's a few new users out there, I'll take a moment to explain the color scheme.  I know the black background can seem kind of gloomy, but when I compose an entry, such as an essay or observation, it takes me while to get my thoughts together in cogent and succinct paragraphs.  I've just never been one of those people who writes well off the top of his head.  So, I made the background black to save battery life.  The text really isn't white either.  It's 75% or so from black to white, so it's really a very light gray.  Again, to save a bit on battery life.  Other than that, you might wonder how I came up with the gradient that goes from blue to yellow, or as I like to think of it, "blue" to "sunny."  Sometimes I think that's kind of a silly thing, but it's kind of the purpose of the app, to help me get from blue to sunny.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

Sometimes it's Tough Getting Started

Sometimes it's tough getting started using Mood Sentry, for a given day.  I'm not sure why because I've had good results using it.  The symptom is that I'll delay using Mood Sentry rather than open it first thing in the morning.  That delay can end up lasting a good portion of the day.  Here's the catch, on those infrequent days that I delay using Mood Sentry I typically have something important to address and causing me stress and anxiety.  Isn't that when I need the tool the most?  Sometimes I'm able to push myself to use it and when I do it helps.  This is why I have the reminder automatically open Mood Sentry on my phone.  However, on these days in question I'll often close it with the intention of opening it again at a later time.  I'm not sure what to do about this other than relax and accept that this will happen every now and then.  I could beat myself up with a should statement ("you really should use the app!") but that would be counter-productive, I think.  I'll think about this a bit more and see if I can come up with a gentle but effective way to motivate myself to use the app on these days.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

After the Fact

It's not unusual for me to realize the distortion after the fact.  I've been stressing on things at work all week long.  Tonight, while reviewing My Experiences, I realized one of the thoughts that was driving my stress was a Should Statement related to updating my project plans earlier this year.  I "should" have asked for more money at the time.  My funds are getting kind of tight right now.  I used the example in My Experiences related to should statements, and it helped.  I replace the should with "it might have been better had" I asked for more money.  I also thought back to the process I used, and realized I did about as good as I could have done.  I might change things up a bit when doing forecasting in the future, but those changes will be minor.  And finally, thought money will be tight at the end, I think we'll get everything we need to get done, done.  So why the stress?  Even though I realized this after the fact, it still had a positive impact on my mood and I believe will continue to do so tomorrow.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

Did a Bit Better Today

I'm still feeling a lot of stress, but I did a bit better today.  I focused early in my day on a few key things that were driving a lot of my stress, which were things that I was uncertain about.  So, I tried to clarify them which helped a lot.  I have an old Observation entry related to things like this in which I tell myself that when things start piling up and driving anxiety/stress, focusing on a few things that I can complete tends to help.  I think part of the reason is simply reducing the list of things to do.  I reviewed that entry tonight and will spend a few minutes reviewing more entries tomorrow at the start of the day. I think I'll do that rather than review My Experiences tomorrow, just to mix things up a bit.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

Still Struggling

I've had a mild head ache all day and I think that the discomfort is essentially driving some emotional reasoning.  Because I feel bad, my thoughts are tending toward the negative.  I've been challenging my thoughts throughout the day, or at least the negative ones, and think I've done an OK job keeping my mood in check.  Work is a bit stressful these days with one project winding down and another spooling up, which may be driving the headache.  The prioritization scheme helps me focus on the important items, especially when setting goals.  I think I can lick this if I keep on top of my thoughts.  I set some goals for tomorrow and see how things go.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

Yet an Even Better Day

I'm not sure if it's the preparation I've been doing or the phase of the moon, but each day seems to be a little better than the previous, though only a little better.  I used the Daily Goals and Prioritization scheme this morning to help me focus on the important things to get done today.  I was actually able to identify a couple of things to not work on, which helps with the feeling of being overwhelmed by all the stuff I can think of doing.  Other than that, I also had some good news on a couple of projects I'm working on, which usually helps.  I think I'll start my day the same way tomorrow and see how that goes.  I'll add a review of "My Experiences" to the morning routine because tomorrow I have multiple meetings and reviewing "My Experiences" usually helps on days like that.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

A Bit Better Than Yesterday

Today was a bit better than yesterday.  The same general feelings and thoughts, but I did a better job handling them today.  The result was less procrastination, but not significantly more work.  I think I let myself relax a bit more today.  Setting the goals last night and checking them in the morning definitely helped today.  I think a better night's sleep helped too.  I accomplished most of my stated goals, but realized late in the day that I needed to get some work related tasks done too, which I had forgotten about.  I sacrificed a couple of stated goals for these forgotten goals, which I think was the right thing to do.  Tomorrow is a work day and I have a lot of stuff happening, so tonight when I set some goals for tomorrow I will review my Prioritization matrix to help me identify what really needs to get done.  Reviewing the Prioritization matrix has helped during times of high stress at work.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.